Inside Politics: Angela Rayner emerges ‘more powerful’ from Labour reshuffle

We’ll start the week with a bit of family drama. Prince William and Prince Harry have reportedly “insisted” they give separate speeches when they unveil the Diana memorial statue this summer. “They won’t present a united front,” one royal source told the tabloids. The disunited Labour family are back at each other’s throats. You think they would have learned how to fight well by now. But no – they’re fighting ugly over the disastrous local elections and Keir Starmer’s chaotic reshuffle. Meanwhile, Boris Johnson is struggling to keep our disunited “family of nations” together. He has appealed to Nicola Sturgeon to work with him through the Covid crisis in the “spirit of unity”. But in truth, the spirit of unity doesn’t exist anymore.

Inside the bubble

Policy correspondent Jon Stone on what to look out for today:

Boris Johnson will give a press conference setting out the latest lockdown easing moves for 17 May. The final police and crime commissioner election results will be revealed. But all the focus will be on Labour leader Keir Starmer’s reshuffle: a meeting of his new shadow cabinet is expected around 11am.

Daily briefing

RESHUFFLING THE DECK CHAIRS: Keir Starmer has completed a very limited and very messy reshuffle, after an awkward stand-off with his deputy Angela Rayner – whom he sacked as chair and campaign co-ordinator. Starmer has sacked his shadow chancellor Anneliese Dodds, replacing her with Rachel Reeves. Dodds now becomes party chair. And Rayner will take up Reeves’ old position as shadow Cabinet Office secretary (holding Michael Gove to account). So there’s no return of “big beasts” such as Yvette Cooper and Hilary Benn after all. It seems Starmer is simply in survival mode, after the outrage sparked by news of Rayner’s demotion on Saturday night. Rayner was thought to be negotiating with Starmer’s team for hours on Sunday, making sure she still had a key role. One of her allies said she had emerged “significantly more powerful”. Meanwhile, the sacking of Nick Brown as chief whip hasn’t gone down too well (he was liked by all sides). It will certainly take a lot of work for Starmer to win back any kind of good will from Labour MPs on the left. “I don’t think we should rule out a leadership challenge,” said Jon Trickett MP.

SEE YOU IN COURT? Boris Johnson wants Nicola Sturgeon and other devolved leaders to attend a summit on how “Team UK” can recover from the Covid crisis. Sturgeon has other things in mind. The SNP leader told Johnson an independence referendum “is now a matter of when – not if” when she spoke to him on the phone on Sunday. Sturgeon claimed on Marr that an independence vote was “will of the country” after the small increase in the majority of pro-indy MSPs. But it seems she will hold off for a while. She admitted she “wouldn’t rule out” legislation for indyref2 in the Scottish parliament early next year, claiming the idea that the UK government would try to block it in the Supreme Court would be “completely outrageous”. Michael Gove dodged questions as best he could. Pressed on whether No 10 would use the courts to block legislation, Gove said: “We’re not even going there at the moment.” Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross claimed Sturgeon’s most senior legal adviser, the Lord Advocate, should stop her from bringing forward legislation.

LET’S GET PHYSICAL: Boris Johnson is all set to confirm the next phase of lockdown easing for England will go ahead on 17 May. “Intimate contact” (hugging) will soon be allowed between friends and family, Michael Gove said on Sunday. It looks like we will be allowed to meet indoors in groups of six, and outdoors in groups of 30, one week from today. There is also relief for hospitality bosses, with pubs and restaurants allowed to reopen indoors on the same date. Explaining why some restrictions would stay in place, Gove admitted he is “genuinely worried” about the India Covid variant. It could be the PM and the scientists are forced into the awkward business of explaining the “right” way to hug at the press conference later. Prof Cath Noakes, a member of the government’s Sage committee, has shared her concern about renewed physical contact – saying we should keep our hugs short and sweet and avoid face-to-face contact if we can. Oh well. Stiff upper lip and all that.

TANGLED UP IN BLUE: The dust has finally settled on the Super Thursday election results. And it seems not all is rosy in the garden for Boris Johnson. The Lib Dems claimed the Tory “blue wall” in the south may be starting to crumble. Ed Davey’s party gained councillors from Tories right across the south and east of England, leaving the map a bit more yellow and the Lib Dems to eye up several Conservative parliamentary seats. The Tories were also left disappointed when Labour’s Tracy Brabin – the former Coronation Street star – won the contest to become the first mayor of West Yorkshire on Sunday, winning 60 per cent of the popular vote. It sets up another by-election in the north of England, as Brabin gives up her Batley and Spen seat. Meanwhile, Tory HQ may be slightly concerned by remarks Andy Burnham, the all-conquering Labour mayor of Greater Manchester. He raised eyebrows by saying: “In the distant future, if the party were ever to feel it needed me, well, I’m here and they should get in touch.” Burnham is the one they fear.

BUILD IT AND THEY WILL VOTE: The Tories have convinced themselves that boosting home ownership was the key to electoral success in the north and Midlands. So a new planning bill is set to be included in Tuesday’s Queen’s Speech. The country will be split up into either “growth” or “protection” zones, according to The Times – with housing development getting automatic approval in growth areas. The government is still deciding whether to make the scheme slightly less crude by adding a third “regeneration” category. Former Labour PM Gordon Brown is desperately trying to regenerate the idea of greater devolution in his ongoing bid to save the union. His think tank is launching a new campaign to appeal to “middle Scotland”. Does middle Scotland exist? To be fair to Brown, the latest Survation poll numbers show the vast majority of Scots uneasy about the idea of indyref2 in the short-term. Only 12 per cent think independence is one of the most important issues for the new SNP government.

On the record

“For this to end up in court – which is not something I ever want to see – it would mean that a Conservative government had refused to respect the democratic wishes of the Scottish people.”

Nicola Sturgeon kicks off the fun and games over indyref2.

From the Twitterati

“Senior Labour source tells me that when shadow cabinet members complained to Keir Starmer’s office about the terrible lines they were given to take to the media after the Hartlepool disaster, they were told Peter Mandelson had signed them off.”

Owen Jones hears Mandy is back in the picture…

“Peter Mandelson has told MPs on WhatsApp that reshuffles are ‘horribly difficult’ and not helped by social media. Says Starmer should be given ‘space and time to lead’ and judged afterward ‘in the round’.”

…while Jessica Elgot hears Mandy is pleading for patience.

Essential reading

Jeremy Corbyn, The Independent: Labour needs to set out a bold vision to transform lives

Prof John Curtice, The Independent: Johnson has been left with little room for error when it comes to Scotland

Isabel Hardman, The Spectator: Is Keir Starmer destined to become another Neil Kinnock?

Ailbhe Rea, New Statesman: Alex Salmond has handed Nicola Sturgeon a parting gift

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